DISCLAIMER: many of my hyperlinks are meant to provide more information about their subject but sometimes my brain shoots off to another corner of the internet so just know that if it makes no sense it’s probably the latter.
If you google “define therapy” you’ll notice that psychotherapy, or talk therapy, pops up as a synonym. If you then google “define psychotherapy” and scroll through the results, it doesn’t take too long to confirm that most popular sites use the two words interchangeably. Now obviously, there are different types of therapy but it seems that many derive from psychotherapy or use a psychoanalytical approach (psych people please enlighten me in the comments if I’m off). And this all makes sense. We’re familiar with the “and how does that make you feel” question, and may have had our own experiences with it; but for me and maybe for some of you too, this was my only perspective into “therapy”…until I watched a TED talk on music therapy, and a TED talk on music therapy, and a TED talk on music therapy (no lie, there are tons of these). “Oook, but you can’t talk about your problems by playing or listening to music”…true…in that you can’t talk *whispers* you can sing yung padawan. But there’s so much more to it and I’d argue you’re more familiar with it than you think. I mean, do you have a sad playlist? I do. I think we all should have one, they’re great. You can recognize moods that songs bring to their listeners based off of how they feel, and if you open yourself up, you can empathize with those emotions, as I’m sure you’ve all done before. I just think many of us don’t actively attend to the fact that we use music on a consistent basis as a tool to work through or understand our mental and emotional states; past, present or future. See, music can unlock precise memories of our past (mhmm you can blabber on all you want about how that one song doesn’t remind you of your ex anymore…); music can entrench us in the moments, movements and/or emotions of the present (even the least graceful of us can tap our feet and bob our heads…); and music can guide our thoughts, inspirations and goals in a way that almost no other thing in this universe can. “Alright. But can music really heal? Can music really be used to treat a mental or physical disorder?” You tell me.
To be dramatic, I’m currently working through a long period of change and at times like these, I occasionally need somewhere to escape mentally. For me, that’s music, whether I’m listening, writing or producing. But you know how at some points in your life, all the sad lyrics resonate a little too much? So here I was trying to escape part of my escape and not having too much success… until I came across the stress-slashing, life-loving grooves of an unassuming, Texas-based trio, floating around the internet like a runaway beach ball gliding harmlessly over a sea of mines. Surfaces.
A fan’s short album review, a couple of Reddit posts and a self-hosted blog. That’s all I could find on them aside from social media and their own content. I was introduced to Surfaces when Spotify so lovingly released their Tastebreakers playlists in December, and it seems like everyone I talk to has stumbled upon them in one way or another. It turns out one of my cousin’s classmates has produced a few songs for them, one of my best friends’ brothers has collaborated with them and a group of college friends back east have been listening to them almost unknowingly for months. Despite these differing modes of exposure to their music (as well as geographical spreadoutedness #LGR), we have all converged in one state…of obsession.
While many of their songs would pair well with a Corona and lime, their discography mainly flows through lofi hip-hop, dips into jazz and splashes in alternative pop, multi-cultural folk, barbershop and a myriad of other subgenres as its waves make their way into our ear canals.
- The group consists of three members (with my assumption of their general roles given what I hear/what’s written):
- Colin Padalecki (Writing, Production, Blogging, Visual Art)
- Forrest Frank (Vocals, Writing, Production)
- Also, a self-proclaimed bedroom producer and solo artist himself.
- Alexa Padalecki (Vocals and though not stated anywhere I can find, probably wrote and contributed to production as well)
- Active since 2016 beginning as, what I assume is, a brother-sister duo (though Forrest and Colin produced music together prior to Surfaces – in college I’m assuming)
- No record of hitting the charts…yet
- They don’t have a freakin’ Wikipedia page either, maybe I’ll submit this haha
…and now that you all have been acquainted, let’s vibrate our ears together.
12/3/17 – Album 1 – Surf
You know how sometimes you need to give a song a few listens or you need to hear it in just the right mood/mindset before something clicks and you truly like it. Yeah, this was not the case when I was first exposed to Surfaces’ music. “Loving” clicked immediately for me and it may for you too. Either way, this is the album-defining song for Surf so if you like this one, there’s a good chance you’ll like the rest.
Such an easy song to listen to isn’t it? I love when artists can paint simple and sweet pictures with their songs as a whole despite enormous amounts of complexity layered throughout their mixes. In “Loving”, you have “flyin’ high like the birds and the bees” sung alongside bird chirps and a sustained buzzy bass; there’s this beautiful sample of what I imagine as Snow White’s light, breezy voice serenading these animals as they beep, bop and boop around; and it drives me crazy but there’s this ukulele loop that’s almost impossible to follow/hear and I don’t know how it fits but it just does. Ah, music is a beautiful thing, it’s a beautiful thing:’)
I should also note early on that Surfaces and their members don’t create this music completely on their own. The following credits display artists that have contributed to a respective song’s creation, from writing one word to mixing/mastering the entire production.
So I read through their blog, went through their twitter account and analyzed each songs’ lyrics (keep in mind these guys wrote every song) to get a feel for where this music came from and man, I’m not gonna lie, I related pretty dang hard…but not in the way I was expecting. For those who know me, I’m a ridiculously sentimental being, nostalgic to no end, and that’s reached a peak here in my early days of “adulthood”. I also tend to romanticize/idealize many things in my life and this “adulthood” is very kindly stripping away many of these ideas, for better or for worse, idk yet (and I am learning I may never find out!) Anywaysss, my point is, reading through their blog posts, tweets and lyrics, I could sense that these were genuine people with romantic natures, a taste for drama and a talent for transforming their seemingly negative thoughts and emotions into uplifting messages. “Whoa, when did this get so deep, I thought we were talking about Surfaces’ music?” And I’d say we still are, but I think it’s important to place emphasis on “the real”, where meaningful art truly comes from. In this case (and in my opinion), “the real” are these deep, youthfully romantic feelings of love and loss, confusion and anxiety about what exactly it is we’re doing with our lives and sadness over the realization that we’ll never get our childhoods back (for those of us lucky enough to have good childhoods). I feel you guys. Welcoming myself to the Q.L.C. club.
Take a listen through the rest of Surf, but if you’re in a hurry, I’d say go for “Be Alright” and “Kid Kingdoms”.
Before I move on, I’d like to point out “Kid Kingdoms” and it’s nostalgia. I think they do a good job capturing the lullaby vibe with bells, xylophones and shakers that remind me of elementary school music class. The kids laughter in the background also connects well with the atmosphere.
“to all the waves that come and go. to all that is washed away. to all that is washed up and found. to acknowledging the bigger picture. to looking up from these screens. to all the sand castles we created. to all of our kid kingdoms. to all of the footprints we left on the shore. may we never stop running. may we never grow up. may we never stop pretending… surf. an album by surfaces. this fall.” – Colin
During the creation of this album, I could feel a change occurring in Colin as he posted updates on Surfaces’ blog. They released Surf and all seemed to have been on the up-and-up…but then Forrest and Colin put out a single called “Low”…not included on either album, just sitting there in between both. This had me confused for awhile, because it didn’t seem to match up with the momentum riding off of Surf…and then I read this:
“what started as just a song about feeling down, turned out to be a song about acceptance and perseverance. a song that lets people know that it’s okay to feel low, it’s okay to yell it out. accepting your lows is always the first step, but what you do from there is what will always define you.” – Colin
Here we are again, using these deep feelings and turning them around into some sort of positive message. Not an outrageous or even unique thing to do really, but what excites me here is that it’s becoming a theme. You’ve heard about the act of “finding one’s sound” or “thing” or whatever, either from artists themselves talking about how endless and arduous of a path it was to find it or from what you hear on the media e.g. judges commenting on performances saying “you haven’t found your sound yet” or “I just wasn’t feeling it”. Ja feel? Well, ladies and gentledudes, I believe this was a moment that clicked for Surfaces and I couldn’t be happier it did.
1/6/19 – Album 2 – Where the Light Is
This next album starts with the same ambience that the last one ended with. Smooth, jazzy instruments with carefree kids laughing in the background. Then all of a sudden you realize they’re building up to something…ooh that guitar is crisp…dang these textures are so warm…it feels like you’re strutting down a boardwalk in celebration. In celebration of what though? Then it hits. Omg. They found it. They found their sound. Ah, I bet it was a “Beautiful Day” indeed.
Credits for Where the Light Is:
Honestly, I could go down a rabbit-hole breaking down these songs so I’ll stay surface level (and leave the active listening to you). Just know “Heaven Falls / Fall on Me”, “This View” and “Grace” as a triad have the ability to break you out of any funk you may be in. Also, it’s fun to note during the creation of this album, the guys were flying between Houston and Seattle (or Clearwater?) and actually went on a trip to Hawaii to write and record together (no doubt inspiring a lot of the story, character and radiance in this album). One of my favorites. Enjoy:)
What started as these “Seattle Sessions” contemplating their art, feeling a movement towards “songs with less pain”; morphed into the creation of Surf, a collection of music that neatly wrapped their sound up into a cocoon meant to hang proudly on display…but also, to prepare for the release of something even more beautiful: finding themselves, finding their light and encouraging others to find theirs in Where the Light Is. They’ve proven to me that seemingly surface-level messages of encouragement and positivity have much deeper roots in their art…in fact, they have no meaning without them…much like a beach ball, whose physical matter is simply a sphere that can’t take shape without what you breathe inside of it:)
I’m happy for this group. If they ever were to read this, I’d just like to let them know that they’re onto something big, to always stay real with their art and thanks for the perspective. Their music has helped me to continually work through a new phase of my life and I hope that it may inspire you in some aspect of your life. Please send some love their way by checking out their website, their merch (cuz and I copped that long-sleeve tee) and keep up with their music on whatever platform you use. Recently, they’ve released a new summer-single called “Palm Trees” that you may get to see played live if they follow through on their plans to tour this Summer ’19!! If they do, I might just see you there.
Thanks for looking at my words!
✌️‘n Carrots,
eace
Special thanks to Erin Seibert, Robert Gupta and Kathleen Howland and their TED Talks for spreading awareness surrounding the profession of Music Therapy and it’s applications.